We've had a lot of white synths this week, with the Fairlight and the new Access TI, so I was intrigued to find this picture in an old copy of Blender at work. What is that he's playing? Love those grey-and-white keys. Suggestions in the comments field, please!

It might be some sort of electric organ... it's got mostly switches, it looks like. Only a couple of sliders. The "al" you can see on the front ending the name/company name might be a clue. Only thing I could think of with that ending is "Sequential" but that looks nothing like Sequential's logo font.-bill (Heuristics Inc.)

It's a Farfisa 'Professional' Organ. I used to have one, they weigh a lot more than modern keyboards but less than a Hammond. The Dark green tabs are the flute stops (at the usual organ intervals, including halfs), light green are clarinet stops, orange is percussion and yellow is sustain (piano, harpsicord & vibe(?) sounds that sustain after thekey is released). Each sound generator group has a separate volume slider and vibrato switch. The keyboard player in the Simple Minds used one on their first 3 albums. Popular New Wave keyboard. If you find one with malfunctioning B flats and wierd metal brackets bolted to the bottom it's my old one.Fred

Its a farfisa professional, its missing the 4 colored sliders on the top, same thing happened to mine.

sly used to connect to 2 giant black tolex covered leslies [the CBS leslie solid state series, not the orignal hammond type. they were loud but had crappy amps....]. it had a stand that would let you tilt a 45 degree angle so the keyboard would be right under your hands if you were standing....

don't know exactly what it is, but i'm sure it became magic in his hands!i just have 2 questions for anyone who might be able to help: 1. what issue number of BLENDER was this photo in? 2. where in the world did this musical genius dissappear to?!

Sly Stone...genius. go to www.phattadatta.com apparantly he is still working on something (ultra complex funk last time i heard) not sure if it will ever see the light of day but this site is, again apparantly, his only official portal. the man needs support (fried brain syndrome) so give all you can!

Sly Stone...genius. go to www.phattadatta.com apparantly he is still working on something (ultra complex funk last time i heard) not sure if it will ever see the light of day but this site is, again apparantly, his only official portal. the man needs support (fried brain syndrome) so give all you can!

Still using one of these in my band...although I still had all four of the coloured sliders until I lost one a month or two ago! I've removed them all now to stop any more going missing. You can get some very strange sounds out of that thing.

Sly was all about the compact, mini-compact, and, well, here you see the 'Professional'.

Confusion amongst these smaller sized combo organs should be expected.Chicago Musical Instrument companyis one to check out. Basicly, all of the organ manufacturers were seperated by about two degrees or less.

I can't speak for the vox line, but everyone else was working together on this; and the products are virtualy the same concept underneath the hood.

combo-organ.com is a great place for info on these fantastic 12 oscillator beasts.